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Under the Scope: Oilers vs Blue Jackets

by
Ryan Frankson
/ Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers got goals from six different players and posted an important 6-4 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets on Thursday night, battling back from 2-0, 3-2 and 4-3 deficits en route to the come-from-behind victory. Sam Gagner regained a share of the team scoring lead with a goal and two assists to lead the way, while Devan Dubnyk came on in relief of Nikolai Khabibulin to get the win with nine saves in the third period.Take a closer look at the game as we go Under The Scope:

With less than three and a half minutes to go in the third period and the game tied 4-4, Ryan Johansen sets up Matt Calvert on the doorstep but Devan Dubnyk makes a remarkable pad save. Ryan Nugent-Hopkins chips the puck back up the ice, Ales Hemsky gets it in the neutral zone, bursts past the Columbus defence and sneaks a backhand through Sergei Bobrovsky's pads to give Edmonton a 5-4 lead.

250

Career point milestone reached by Sam Gagner thanks to a pair of assists against the Blue Jackets

3

Goals for Jordan Eberle in his last two games to give him double digits on the season with 10

Faceoffs won by Oilers Sam Gagner and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins combined, good enough for a 57% success rate

4

Goals scored by the Blue Jackets forward line of Matt Calvert, Cam Atkinson and Artem Anisimov

Jordan Eberle

G

A

PTS

PIM

+/-

1

0

1

0

0

Ales Hemsky

G

A

PTS

PIM

+/-

1

0

1

0

1

Mike Brown

G

A

PTS

PIM

+/-

0

0

0

5

0

BLUE JACKETS Sergei Bobrovsky

SA

SV

GA

TOI

SV%

19

24

5

59:16

0.792

OILERS Devan Dubnyk

SA

SV

GA

TOI

SV%

9

9

0

19:33

1.000

BLUE JACKETS Jack Johnson - D

23:27 - 0 PTS, -2 rating

OILERS Ladislav Smid - D

22:37 - 0 PTS, +1 rating

As good as Ales Hemsky's game-winner was, the tic-tac-toe passing masterpiece executed by Ryan Jones, Nail Yakupov and Shawn Horcoff for the Oilers third goal was just a little bit better. On a three-on-two rush Jones dishes to Yakupov who makes a blind drop pass to Horcoff for the triumphant finish.

Sam Gagner was in on three of the Oilers six goals in the victory, tallying a pair of assists and then chipping a clearing attempt the length of the ice into the empty net for the insurance marker. Gagner reclaimed a share of the team scoring lead with Taylor Hall and now has 31 points (13 goals, 18 assists) in 33 games.

Mike Brown was a physical force as usual for the Oilers on Thursday, throwing his solid frame around with five big body-checks and dropping the gloves with the much larger Jared Boll for a lengthy scrap in the middle frame. Coach Ralph Krueger called Brown's first hit of the night a "game-changer".

With the win, the Oilers now have an 18-4-1 home record versus Columbus, which is the team's best winning percentage against any opponent at Rexall Place. That record includes five straight victories by a combined score of 25-12.

"If we're going to fight our way back into the playoff race, we need these regulation wins. It's a big win for us."

–Sam Gagner

Saturday, March 30 vs Vancouver 8:00pm MT (CBC / 630 CHED)

After a mini two-game road trip in Nashville and St. Louis, the Oilers (13-13-7) are now a third of the way through a mini three-game homestand with a pair of Northwest Division rivals coming to town. The Vancouver Canucks visit Rexall Place on Saturday at 8:00pm and the Battle of Alberta returns on Monday as the Calgary Flames are in town for a 7:30pm game.